Soaking pit cover carriages



June 30, 1959 H. F. SPENCER SOAKING PIT COVER CARRIAGEIS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 17, 1956 INVENTOR.

June'SO, 1959 H. F. SPENCER SOAKING PIT COVER CARRIAGES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 17, 1956 IN V EN TOR.

June 30, 1959 H. F. SPENCER 2,892,550

SOAKING PIT COVER CARRIAGES Filed Dec. 17, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 "fi '40 JNVENTOR'. Y

IlZi/g. 6

United States Patent SOAKING PIT COVER CARRIAGES Howard F. Spencer, Evans City, Pa.

Application December 17, 1956, Serial No. 628,802

2 Claims. (Cl. 212-4) This invention relates to soaking pit cover carriages, more particularly to a combined soaking pit cover hoist and carriage which can be employed in combination with a transfer car to service a plurality of soaking pits.

Soaking pits in the steel industry for heating ingots are arranged in rows in relation to furnace operating control towers and basic layouts of ingot buggy and steel delivery tracks. Also, in recent designs soaking pit furnaces are arranged in rows in a main building with a leanto structure on one side of the furnaces for housing recuperators.

The present invention particularly deals with the latter type of soaking pit furnace arrangement wherein the leanto structure is provided with tracks for a transfer car by means of which the power lifting and traversing car is moved from pit to pit without interfering with the accessibility of the recuperator structures therebeneath.

The invention will become more apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawings constituting a part hereof in which like reference characters designate like parts and in which:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a cover lifting and traversing car and a transfer car embodying a principle of this invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view thereof, showing the cover lift and traverse car mounted on the transfer car;

Figure 3 is an end elevational view of the transfer car;

Figure 4 is an end elevational view of the cover lift and traverse car in position over pit ready to hoist cover; and,

Figure 5 is a top plan view diagrammatically illustrating banks of soaking pit furnaces and their related tracks with a service car and track arrangement; and,

Figure 6 is an end view thereof.

With reference to the several figures of the drawing, the numeral 1 designates the wall of a soaking pit 2, the soaking pit cover; and 3 a track supported on buckstays 4 and 5 of the furnace. The track 3, extending to the building columns 6. Mounted on the cover 2 are lifting brackets or lugs 7 and 8, which as shown in Figure 4, are provided with T-slots for engaging the T-shape ends 9 and 10 of the cover hoist links that are connected to the bell crank levers 11 and 12 at 13 and 14. The links 9 and 10 are part of the cover hoist mounted on a carriage frame 15 journaled on flanged Wheels 16 that traverse the rails 3. It is to be noted that the carriage 15 is provided with guide rails 17 and 18 and supports 17a and 18a for a purpose to be hereinafter stated.

The bell cranks 11 and 12 are connected by links 19 and 20 to an eccentric drive 21 operated through a transmission mechanism 22 driven by a motor 23, Figure 1. The carriage wheels 16 are driven through gear reduction mechanism 24 by motor 25, Figure 1.

In operation, when the cover hoist and traverse carriage 15 is located above the cover with the T-shape lifting links 9 and 10 interacting with the cover lugs 7 and 8, as shown in Figures 1 and 4, the cover hoist motor 23 is energized and the cover is raised out of seal with the ice soaking pit walls. The wheel drive motor 25 is then energized and the cover hoist and traverse carriage is moved on the rails 3 in the direction from right to left as viewed in Figure 2. When the carriage 15 reaches the end of the track 3 at the extreme lefthand end of the track, the guide rails 17 and 18, Figure 4, will engage guide rollers 26 and 27 of a transfer car generally designated by the numeral 28. The transfer car shown in plan in Figure l and in side elevation in Figure 2, consists of a carriage frame 29 having wheels 30-31 operating on rails 32 and 33 that are mounted on girders provided in the leanto structure at the left of the soaking pit plant, as viewed in Figure 2, the girders being supported on the columns 6 and 6a of the building and leanto.

The transfer car is self-propelled by means of a chain drive 36 from a gear reduction mechanism 37 operated by motor 38 mounted on the car frame 29.

The top frame 29 of the transfer car 28 is provided with a track 35a on which the Wheels 16 of the cover hoist and traverse car ride when the latter car passes from the pit track rails 3 of the soaking pits onto the transfer car. As will be seen in Figure 2, the rails 17 and 18 rest on the wheels 26 and 27 so that the carriage wheels 16 can traverse the gap between rails 3 and 35a without any shock. It is evident that before the first set of wheels leave track 3 to traverse track 35a, the extended portion of the guide rails 17 and 18 will be resting on wheels 27 and 26, while traction is supplied through the hind wheels as the front set of wheels pass over the gap between the rails.

In the operation of the above-described cover hoist and traverse car and its cooperating transfer car, rows of soaking pits, as shown in Figure 5, may be served by a single power unit that is moved by the transfer car from one set of pit rails to another to permit movement of the cover hoist and traverse car on the rails above the soaking pits to lift and remove the covers. While such mechanism may be used with various types of soaking pit plant layouts, it is especially useful in connection with the leanto type of soaking pit plant construction with control rooms 39 and recuperators 40, Figure 6.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated and described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the details of construction without departing from the principles herein set forth.

I claim:

1. In combination with a soaking pit, a cover therefor, a cover hoist and carriage, said pit having a plurality of tracks and said soaking pit cover hoist and carriage having wheeled axles supported on said tracks and a transfer car supported on wheeled axles movable on rails disposed transversely of the rails of said pit, said transfer car having rails on the top thereof adapted for alignment with the rails of the pit for receiving the cover hoist and carriage and means comprising rollers on said transfer car and guide rails on said cover hoist and carriage for supporting the latter while traversing the gap between the rails of the pit and the rails of said transfer car.

2. In combination with a plurality of soaking pits each of said pits having parallel rails at the top and parallel to each other for supporting a combined cover hoist and traversing carriage, a leanto structure adjacent said soaking pits having a pair of rails disposed transversely of said soaking pit rails and extending the full length of said plurality of soaking pits, a transfer car mounted on said last-named rails having rails adapted to register with the rails at the top of the soaking pits for receiving the soaking pit cover hoist and traverse carriage from one set of soaking pit furnace rails to move the same in register with another set of soaking pit rails, the covers of the soaking pits hayingprejecting lugs and the cqver hoist and carriage having interacting links for engaging the said lugs in register, independent means for causing said carriage to traverse the rails on said furnace to mcwe the cover out of aiignnient with the furnace Openings, and the transfer car hailing roliers in alignment with the rails of the soaking pit for receiving guide rails of the c over hoist and carriage which extend beyond the supporting wheels of the latter to bridge the gap between the furnace rails and the rails on top of the transfer car.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

